


Nothing

by Hollyflash



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Danny's dead folks, Hurt No Comfort, Identity Reveal, Not a Happy Story, a couple lines of body horror towards the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27791719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollyflash/pseuds/Hollyflash
Summary: In the past few years, there have been no casualties from ghost attacks. Injuries, yes, but no deaths. Now there has.Maddie Fenton can’t stand that Phantom gets to survive while her son does not.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 108





	Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> If you came here for a bittersweet reveal fic you're going to be disappointed. If you came here for pain, you're in the right place!
> 
> Also, this fic literally exists because I thought of the summery and went like 'oh that's cool, I should write that,' and I'm genuinely impressed that I did.

They didn’t call it a funeral.

Funeral was too serious. It was too final. And _Celebration of Life_ just hurt when Danny had only been seventeen. They didn’t want to do it, let alone call it something. But Vlad and the grief counselors he’d paid for insisted they do something.

Danny’s friends dubbed it a ‘ _fun_ -eral,’ detached from what had happened as they were. Jazz called it a ‘see you later party.’ Maddie and Jack called it nothing.

Nothing, like they’d found of their son.

A backpack on the edge of the scene of Phantom’s wail, a cracked phone, and an unsurvivable amount of lost blood were nothing to them. It wasn’t a body. It wasn’t organs. It was just blood, puddled up like there should’ve been a body there, with no sign it was taken anywhere else, and no explanation as to what the ghosts had done to their boy. It was nothing.

Vlad had said that was enough and it was unrealistic to deny that. Jazz had punched him in the throat.

But all that was over now.

Maddie stood in her lab, staring at the portal - the blasted thing that had brought Phantom to this world in the first place. She put the combination in the door of the weapon’s vault and grabbed a sturdy axe. She turned back to the portal, axe poised and ready to swing.

And then she remembered - she remembered catching Danny and his friends down here, all of them clearly upset and stammering excuses. She remembered the fear in her son’s eyes when Jack finally got him to admit that his friends had wanted a picture, and when he’d leaned against something the portal had turned on. She remembered running across the lab to hug him and kiss his forehead while he stammered some more.

She remembered grounding him for the weekend for touching dangerous inventions with only a jumpsuit for protection, but only the weekend - because he had made their portal work.

She remembered the relief in his eyes, and how he’d hugged her back, and the quiet admittance that he was trying to make her and Jack happy.

She dropped the axe, chipping the blade on the lab’s concrete floor.

She wouldn’t destroy the portal. Danny had fixed that for her and Jack - they’d thought it was an interest in ectobiology, so they’d given him chores in the lab to help nurture that.

If it had been, that didn’t matter now. Because of Phantom.

Maddie turned on her heel and left the lab, leaving the weapons vault open. Her footstep on the metal stairs echoed in the silence of the lab. The door to the kitchen creaked when she opened it. Jazz, Jack, and Danny’s friends sat at the table.

“We need to talk,” Jazz said, a manila folder in her hands.

“That’s nice,” Maddie said, and grabbed her coat.

Jazz stood. “Mom, we need to talk. Sit down.”

“I’ll be back later,” Maddie said, “Don’t wait for me.”

She closed the front door behind her before her daughter could protest again.

It was pouring rain outside, and deep puddles had already gathered at the base of the steps. Maddie stepped over them, idle memories of her son as a little boy jumping in puddles following her with each step. She passed the end of the curb he’d fallen off of when he was six. Jazz had dragged him back to the house sobbing and covered in muddy water. Maddie had made him hot chocolate and Jack had called it coffee. Danny, determined to be a big boy, had guzzled the ‘coffee’ and burned his tongue.

The rain ran down her face. Maddie put on her goggles.

When Phantom first appeared, he’d been practically impossible to track. Their machines would only pick him up for a few minutes every day. As time went on, his appearances became more frequent, but he’d always disappear between them. Jack had hundreds of half formed theories as to the why and how, and normally Maddie was excited to examine how realistic or practical they could be. But for now, none of them mattered.

Since the day he’d killed their son, Phantom had not hidden once.

Maddie found him by the pond in Amity’s central park, perched on the rail of a bench to watch the nearby ducks. His head swiveled to face her, one eyebrow raised. 

“Hello, citizen,” he said, “what are you doing out in this weather?”

“You killed my son.” Maddie said.

Phantom moved slowly, not floating but moving like a human would until he stood up in front of her. “I am sorry for your loss,” he said, “It’s not my attention to purposely harm any human. Would you like to talk about it? We could move to the gazebo so you’re out of the rain.”

His tone and inflection was exactly the same as all of Vlad’s grief counselors and Maddie despised it with every fiber of her being. Her boots sunk into the mud as she stepped forwards, dragging her down and making each step forwards harder than it had to be. “No,” she said, and only a few feet in front of him, she pointed a lipstick blaster at his forehead. Phantom did not move. He stared at her with blank, ghostly eyes. “I don’t want to talk. I want my son back.”

“It’s alright to be mad,” Phantom said, “anger is a normal response to grief.”

He sounded like one of Jazz’s textbooks. Maddie wanted to laugh in his face. She swiped her goggles up onto her forehead, the few tears that had already leaked out spilling over her cheeks. Her other hand stayed level, still pointed at the ghost who took her son from her. Phantom still made no effort to flee.

“He was seventeen,” she snapped, “not old enough to drink, not old enough to vote, he was my _baby boy_ and you took him from me.”

“I am sorry for whatever part I played,” Phantom said, professional and distant. He didn’t care. He’d killed her son and he didn’t care.

“You’re not sorry,” Maddie snapped, “you’re a putrid manifestation of ectoplasm and post-human-consciousness, an imprint of a tragic event without any real emotions. And you’re a murderer. _You’re_ a murderer!” She stepped closer, her fist almost in Phantom’s face. He still didn’t move. He still didn’t care that she could end his miserable existence right here and now. “You could at least act like you care!”

Phantom blinked slowly. “Would it help if you told me what happened?”

“You should know. _You_ should know.” She wanted to shoot him. All it would take was a squeeze, and she could shoot him between the eyes. 

“I am sorry, citizen, but I don’t. I would like to, however.” Phantom smiled at her. It was small, soft, and genuine. It looked like a smile Danny might’ve given if he was trying to pretend he understood something he didn’t.

She could see more traces of her son in his movement and expressions. She saw traces of Danny, confused and lost, in the way he creased his eyebrows. She could see her son’s anxiety in his too-straight posture. Phantom’s tone was calm, but in the silence, she could see how he pressed his tongue against a front chipped tooth.

Danny had chipped that same tooth in the same way the summer when he was fifteen. They’d been camping, and he’d gone off into the woods - when he came back, he said he’d slipped trying to cross a stream. From the bruises on his face, it’d looked more like he’d been punched.

Maddie had never been close enough to Phantom before to see just how much he looked like her son.

“Citizen?” Phantom said, “you’ve been quiet. Is there anything I can do? Would you like to move out of the rain?” He reached out for her.

Maddie shot him between the eyes.

The ducks scattered as Phantom fell back, the bench behind him snapping in half. He gave a grunt of pain and started to pick himself up, one hand gingerly touching the burn left on his forehead. Maddie didn’t give him the chance - she wanted something bigger, something that would _scare_ the parasite. She removed the Fenton Peeler from her belt and felt it reinforce her jumpsuit.

“You killed my son,” she said, “didn’t you?”

“Citizen, please, I’m not your enemy -”

His protests didn’t register as anything other than the desperate whining it was. “Maybe not at first,” she said, “but you killed him. You’re why all our inventions always registered him, aren’t you? You’ve been _feeding_ off of my son.”

“Please,” Phantom said, “I understand that you’re grieving, and I am sorry for whatever you believe I did. I am not going to attack you.”

Maddie hesitated. _God,_ past the echo, he even _sounded_ like Danny - his voice wavered and shook, just like her son’s would when he was sincere and scared. But this was a ghost. His emotions were not real. He was just trying to manipulate her.

“No,” she said, “you aren’t. You won’t harm anyone ever again. I am the _last_ mother who’ll ever stand here like this.” The peeler charged. Phantom didn’t move, or do anything but stare at her with Danny’s eyes. “I won’t let you find a new life to ruin.”

Phantom still didn’t move, and Maddie didn’t let him know that his stolen expressions were getting to her. Rain obscured her vision more than the few escaped tears as she squeezed the trigger. 

She saw Phantom flinch. She saw him hold his hands in front of his chest, wrists crossed, just like Danny.

The shot went wide and Maddie fell to her knees, meeting Phantom eye to eye. She dropped the peeler and grabbed Phantom by the thick fabric on the shoulders of his jumpsuit, holding him still.

“Why?” She asked, “Why my _son?_ ”

He slowly reached up to pat the back of her gloved hand. The deep cold of his ectoplasm seeped through her jumpsuit, chilling her bones. “I’m sorry,” Phantom said, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Why _Danny?_ ” Maddie pressed, “He was a good kid. Kind, funny, clever - why would you pick him? Was it because of my husband and I? Did you go after Danny because of us?”

Phantom was silent and still for a second. “Citizen? What was your son’s name?”

Maddie scrowled and held him tighter. “Danny Fenton. My son’s name was Danny Fenton and you killed him.”

A handful of indiscernible emotions flickered across Phantom’s face. “Is that name common?”

“I’m the one asking the questions ghost, he was _my_ son.” 

“And that -” Phantom stopped. He swallowed, his extremities shaking very slightly. “Citizen, when did your son die?”

Maddie wanted to snap at him, scream that Phantom should remember when he was the one who’d killed Danny. But the tremor in his voice got to her - despite her best effort to distance Danny from the ghostly parasite, Phantom was still far too much like her boy. “Ten days ago. Two weeks on Monday.”

“...Citizen,” Phantom said slowly, “I am sorry. I am so, so sorry.” He ducked his head as his lips moved with a one-syllable word he didn’t say aloud.

“Sorry won’t bring Danny back,” Maddie said, “Nothing will.” She let him go. Phantom didn’t move. “Why _my son,_ ghost? What did he do to deserve this? He was seventeen, he was my _baby boy,_ he -”

“-Wanted to be an astronaut,” Phantom cut in, softly at first but slowly raising his voice, “couldn’t cook to save his life, and was so scared that he was the dumb one in the family. Protective and defensive of his family to a fault, had a joke or a pun for every situation, hated school but loved to learn -”

“Shut up,” Maddie growled, her hand wrapping around the peeler again. “You said you didn’t know him. You didn’t know anything about him. You -”

“I didn’t know _you,_ ” Phantom said, and he reached for her hand again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t - I didn’t kill your son.” He laughed bitterly, shaking his head, “well, I guess I did. Maybe. Sorry.”

“This isn’t funny,” she snatched her hand back. “My son is _dead -_ ”

“But he’s not gone,” Phantom smiled Danny’s smile, and looked at her with Danny’s eyes. “It’s hard to explain, and I don’t get it either. My memory’s all messed up right now, but apparently that’s normal - apparently I was only _half_ dead before, which is why I can still remember some things? I don’t really get it, but Jazz does, you can probably ask her, she said she was my sister...” He trailed off, one hand on the back of his neck. “I guess I’m just trying to say... sorry, Mom. For dying.”

Maddie stared at Phantom.

No, she stared at the _parasite._

“You’re not my son,” she said.

“Mom?” Phantom scrambled to stand as she did, holding up his hands when she placed a finger against the peeler’s trigger. “Mom, it’s okay -”

“Stop.” She pointed the weapon at him. “My son is dead. He is dead, gone, and that is _your fault._ You don’t get to play with my emotions. I didn’t come here to be your next target, I came here for _justice._ You’re not Danny. You never were.” She didn’t look at Phantom’s stolen expressions. The traces of her son in them were nothing. Nothing like the blood, the backpack, and cracked phone. No body. 

“Goodbye,” she said, and fired.

“Mom!” Jazz barreled into her side, shoulder checking her. Maddie’s feet slipped in the mud and she skid down the bank, Jazz tumbling with her into the duck pond. The peeler was flung from her grip, landing somewhere deeper. Maddie surfaced, dragging Jazz up with her. Danny’s friends were there, comforting Phantom, doting over the burns and scrapes he’d gotten. The peeler’s shot had barely grazed his arm. But by some betrayal, Jack was there too, behind the children - and when the _parasite_ looked his way, Jack wrapped him in a huge hug.

“Jack!” Maddie shouted, and tried to get a grip on the soft muck of the pond’s bank. Jazz wrapped her arms around Maddie’s chest and dug her heels into the bottom of the pond. “Jasmine, let me go this instant, that _thing_ is not your brother!”

“Don’t listen to her,” Jack said, huge arms still wrapped around the stock-still ghost who’d stolen their son’s face. “I love you, Danny.”

“That’s not Danny!”

“Mom!” Jazz screamed in her ear, “He is! He _is_ Danny. He’s always _been_ Danny!”

“He is _nothing!_ ” Maddie snapped, shoving her daughter off. “He’s an ectoplasmic parasite who’s been feeding off of Danny for years! I’ll bet that’s why there wasn’t a body, because that _thing_ drained it -”

“Don’t listen to her, dude,” Tucker said, covering Phantom’s ears.

“Jack!” Maddie snapped, “You let that ghost go! He is _not_ our boy!”

“Maddie,” Jack said, and turned to her with a face marred as much with tears as rain, “Just let me say goodbye.”

“Mr. Fenton?” Sam said. Jack stepped back, pulling her and Tucker back by their arms. The sticky, glowing green device he’d left on Phantom’s lower back beeped once, activated.

“Dad, no!” Jazz jerked forwards, and Maddie yanked her back into the pond. She wrapped her arms around her kicking and screaming daughter’s chest. “Get that off of him, that’s _Danny -_ ”

“Dad?” Phantom said in a small, trembling voice. “What...?”

“Ghosts aren’t natural,” Jack said, ignoring the shouts and screams of the teenagers he held. Sam tried to kick him, and Tucker tried to twist his arm out. Jack stayed firm. “Whatever you are, whatever you were, you aren’t natural. Vladdie said it’d help to say goodbye. Goodbye, Danny.”

Phantom stepped forwards, tried to reach out with a steadily melting hand. He opened his mouth to say something as his jaw dissolved. His ankles disappeared, and he fell to the ground.

Jazz jerked her head back, smashing it against Maddie’s and stunning her for just long enough to break away. She dug her fingers into the mud and pulled herself up, barely making it to Phantom while there was still any of his left. Ectoplasm stained her lap when she tried to move his head, and Jazz gave one final cry as Phantom dripped back to the nothingness he deserved.

Jack released Danny’s friends, and he let them run over to Jazz. Maddie held up a soaked, muddy hand, and let her husband help her out of the pond. She rested her head against his chest.

“Goodbye, Danny,” she said. The rain pooled around them, and carried Phantom’s ectoplasm into the pond. “I love you.”

She let Jack guide her back home, but they left Jazz and Danny’s friends with the ectoplasm of the parasite they’d been convinced was Danny. By the end of the day, there’d be nothing left but stale ectoplasm and a broken bench.

And then, they could move on.

**Author's Note:**

> My favourite part is that from Maddie and Jack's point of view, that was almost a happy ending. Genuinely, it was the closest thing to one they could get without confronting their bias.


End file.
